


Teeth

by The_Sickfic_Sideblog



Series: Being Galra [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Season/Series 02 Spoilers, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-15
Updated: 2017-02-15
Packaged: 2018-09-24 14:40:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9764768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Sickfic_Sideblog/pseuds/The_Sickfic_Sideblog
Summary: Keith heads out for a midnight snack and discovers one of the lesser-known Galra talents.





	

The day following Keith's reveal to Lance and Pidge was extremely long. He didn't dare cloak for how exhausted it made him, but the looks from Allura were boring into his skull. And while the other paladins always stood protectively between him and her, Keith couldn't help but feel as though he wasn't wanted. He didn't eat with the others for dinner - in fact, he didn't each much at all the entire day. Shiro brought him food and insisted that he ate, but his nerves didn't allow him to.

He resorted to raiding the kitchen in the middle of the night, where he would be able to be alone with his thoughts and eat in peace.

But of course, with Keith’s streak of luck, the kitchen wasn’t empty.

The only light cast out into the kitchen was from the inside of the “fridge”. Keith wasn’t sure if it was actually a refrigerator, but it certainly looked like one. The silhouette cast on the floor from behind the door was unmistakable. Keith flicked on the lights.

“Hunk?”

The Yellow Paladin’s head shot up, startled by the sudden presence of someone else. He looked over to Keith and startled again. “Keith! Oh my god, you scared me....I’m not used to you being purple...” He ducked back into the fridge.

Keith frowned, “Me neither. What are you doing up?” He made his way to the cabinets, grabbed a plate, and headed towards... _whatever_ the food goo came out of. Coran never called it by a certain name. The Food Goo Dispenser? Nutrients Deliver-er? Keith didn’t want to think about it too much or give it a name.

“Getting a midnight snack. I could ask you the same thing.”

Keith narrowed his eyebrows, and turned back around, “Hunk, the food goo is over here.”

Hunk lifted his head from the fridge, staring at Keith in shock, “You think I’m gonna eat that stuff for a midnight snack?”

“Um...yes? We eat it for every meal?”

Hunk frowned, almost in disappointment, “Keith, Keith, buddy. I might eat the goo for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but I wouldn’t _touch_ the stuff at this hour.”

Keith’s eyes darted around the room as if looking for an explanation. Even though the kitchen lights were on, he felt completely in the dark. “Is there something I’m missing here?”

Hunk’s voice was muffled by him rummaging through the cabinets, “Midnight snacks are a whole different _level_ of food consumption. The common man will find the easiest thing to eat and go back to bed. But an advanced midnight snacker, like yours truly, will know that a good warm meal will leave you feeling full and help you go right back to sleep. Food goo is not good nor warm.”

Hunk had a point. Keith set down the plate of goo and leaned against the counter. Drowsiness crawled at the edges of his mind as he yawned widely, “Alright. I’ll bite. If not food goo, what are we eating?”

He caught Hunk staring at him with a half-interested, half-frightened look on his face, “Damn right, you’ll _bite!_ Jesus, have you seen your teeth yet?”

Keith rolled his eyes, “I know, I have weird vampire teeth now.”

“No, the back teeth too!” Hunk scrounged through a different cabinet and came up holding a reflective silver platter, “Look!”

Keith took the platter and pulled back his cheek with one finger. Hunk was right. The sharpened teeth didn’t stop at his canines, they went farther back. The ones in the back were less sharp than the front ones, but that didn’t make the situation any better. He still had the same _number_ of teeth, and for that he was grateful. But there was still something very unsettling about the image. Perhaps it was the addition of the dark purple tongue.

“It was kind of scary when you yawned,” Hunk continued, “It was like looking into the mouth of a tiger, or some other predator.”

Keith set down the platter, “Thank you, I really needed that.”

“It wasn’t supposed to be an insult! It’s actually really cool!” he started putting out different cans and bags of supplies from the fridge, “You really don’t like it when people say you’re different, do you?”

“S’cause I’m not different!”

“I hate to be the one to tell you this...but you are? You literally have purple skin and big fluffy cat ears.”

The ears went down and back, “They’re not cat ears! They’re...they’re Galra ears!”

Hunk shrugged the comment off, “What I’m trying to say is that by definition, you _are_ different. But different isn’t bad. Allura and Coran are different, and we still love them. And you’re still _Keith._ You’ll always be Keith. That part didn’t change at all.”

Hunk’s words resonated within Keith’s mind. His expression softened. He had gotten support from the other paladins about still being part of the Voltron team, but he hadn’t heard it worded like that. He felt a bit of tightening in his chest. For this first time since landing back on the castleship, he felt as though he could let his guard down, even just a tiny bit.

All of a sudden, his stomach growled. He’d forgotten why he was there in the kitchen in the first place.

“Back to my question - what are we eating?”

“Hell if I know! I’m just gonna try a bunch of stuff and mix it together and see if something Earth-like comes out of it.” Hunk smiled. He looked over all the ingredients he piled onto the counter and started going through them one by one. Some of them were in strange bags, some were in containers similar to Tupperware on Earth, some were even in sealed cans.

“You...don’t think that’s dangerous? Last time you tried to make something from weird Altean foods, you made _teledov lenses._ ”

“At this point, I’d rather eat a teledov lense than that food goo.”

Keith couldn’t disagree. He sat at the opposite end of the counter, watching Hunk methodically go through each of the mysterious foods, praising some and spitting out others. Now he couldn’t get his mind off his teeth. He ran his tongue over and around them, letting his mind wander about what purpose they served.

Then Hunk got to a can.

The Yellow Paladin searched the kitchen far and wide for a can opener. The kitchen looked like a tornado by the time he gave up. Cabinets were open, strange Altean tools were scattered across the counters. Hunk even resorted to trying to use his hands to open the aluminum can with no success. He offered the can to Keith.

“Can you open it?”

“Probably not any better than you.”

“Try using your teeth.”

Keith would be lying if he said he wasn’t curious. At first, it seemed like a stupid idea. Of course he couldn’t open a metal can with his teeth....could he?

The Red Paladin took the can and tapped it with his longer fingernails first. Those would clearly break off, and he _hated_ hangnails. With a shrug, Keith positioned the rim of the can between his teeth a bit down.

It took a bit of effort, but a small chunk of metal came off in his mouth, followed by a flood of oddly-textured fluid. The contents of the can spilled all over his mouth and front, staining his black shirt blue. He wondered how you could even stain a black shirt, but didn’t want to think about it too much.

Hunk laughed and took the can back, “Dude, I didn’t think that would actually work! We might wanna try a more tactical position of your teeth next time so you don’t ruin the can, but that was awesome! Galra Keith is great!”

Keith spit the fluid and the piece of metal into the sink with a small smile. He had to admit, it _was_ pretty cool. It led him to wonder what else he could do with his new features.

The rest of the cans were opened much more delicately. A small semi-circle of holes punctured the top of each can, allowing the contents to drain out smoothly. Hunk ended up making what he called “Altean Casserole”, which had a picturesque sunset orange coloring to it. Neither of the paladins knew exactly what was in it, but it tasted better than either of them expected. They enjoyed their midnight snack together while the others slept blissfully unaware of the new bond between red and yellow.


End file.
